Acting Governor of the Afghan Central Bank: The bank's reserves have not been exposed to danger

Today, Wednesday, Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Ajmal Ahmadi, said that most of the country's currency reserves are in foreign accounts, and have not been exposed to danger since the Taliban movement took control of the capital, Kabul.

The Acting Governor of the Central Bank - who fled Kabul, wrote on Twitter - that the bank controls reserves of about 9 billion dollars, about 7 billion of which are held in the form of a mixture of cash, gold, US bonds and other securities with the Federal Reserve.

"The international reserves of Afghanistan have not been compromised in any way. No money has been stolen from any reserve account," he added.

"I can't imagine a scenario in which the Treasury/Office of Foreign Assets Control would give the Taliban access to this money," he said.

reserves freeze

On Sunday, the administration of US President Joe Biden froze the Afghan government's reserves deposited in US bank accounts to deprive the Taliban of billions of dollars, and the Washington Post quoted two people it said were familiar with the matter (it did not name them) yesterday.

The two sources familiar with the matter said the decision was made by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and officials at the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

A Biden administration official said, in a statement, that any central bank assets owned by the Afghan government in the United States will not be available to the Taliban, according to the Washington Post.

And the American newspaper pointed out that cutting off access to these reserves is among several expected critical decisions of the Biden administration regarding the economic fate of that country after the Taliban seize power.